UFCThe Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is a U.S.-based mixed martial arts organization, recognized as the largest MMA promotion in the world. The UFC is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada and is owned and operated by Zuffa, LLC. This promotion is responsible for solidifying the sport's postion in the history-books.
UFC is currently undergoing a remarkable surge in popularity, along with greater mainstream media coverage. UFC programming can now be seen on FOX, FX, and FUEL TV in the United States, as well as in 35 other countries worldwide.

It was boring as hell. Granted I was anxiously awaiting for the Bones fight, but still. The general public just does not want to see anything below 155. That is why with fights like this, Faber/Barao, etc, Dana tries so hard to defend them. He wants to get people to like them, although in reality, I truly believe many people would rather have the 5 division than 7 or 8.

It was boring as hell. Granted I was anxiously awaiting for the Bones fight, but still. The general public just does not want to see anything below 155. That is why with fights like this, Faber/Barao, etc, Dana tries so hard to defend them. He wants to get people to like them, although in reality, I truly believe many people would rather have the 5 division than 7 or 8.

There was a time people didn't want to see anything below 170, hell that is why BJ made his initial run at WW. BJ move back down to LW is what made the LW division relevant in peoples eyes. I believe Edgar vs Aldo will be the fight that makes the FW division relevant. I get that the general public isn't interested in the lighter weight classes, it honestly though has just as much to do IMO with the fact that nobody cares about the fighters in the divisions cause they don't know who they are and they don't know who they are and they can't fight anybody anyone cares about. Its the same problem that haunts organizations like Bellator.

I am surprised though that people on the board who obviously know the fighters and understand the level of skill involved didn't all enjoy the fight.

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"If you get hit and it hurts hit him back you not knocked out yet."-Joe Doerksen

What really is the problem with 125 is there's absolutely no depth in the division. The UFC has 5 guys signed to it. Even if you get them exposure there's no one for them to fight. There is just not enough fighters in this division - I think - for people to get excited. They have as many flyweight fighters as Jones has title defenses.

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That is not dead which can eternal lie and withs strange aeons even death may die.

What really is the problem with 125 is there's absolutely no depth in the division. The UFC has 5 guys signed to it. Even if you get them exposure there's no one for them to fight. There is just not enough fighters in this division - I think - for people to get excited. They have as many flyweight fighters as Jones has title defenses.

This is true, hell at least if Benevidez had won then they could have had him vs Uncle Creepy. Now they really got nothing and even Dodson doesn't even remotely excite me. There was 3 guys and then everyone else and one of them just ran through the other two. The division is on life support just as soon as it really got started and that is coming from one of the divisions biggest advocates.

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"If you get hit and it hurts hit him back you not knocked out yet."-Joe Doerksen

Right now they should be focused on establishing 135 and 145. They just don't have the talent pool to market the smaller fighters and hope for any real success. This small of a weight class starts to suffer Heavyweight Syndrome. Human size is on a bell curve. More people fall into the mid ranges (145 to 205) than the extremes (125, 135, and 265). Less people in that weight range means less depth in the fight pool.

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That is not dead which can eternal lie and withs strange aeons even death may die.

I posted this in the other thread but I suppose it is just as relevant, if not more so for this one:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Killz

in 2 or 3 years, once the lighter divisions have some depth. Once we all get to know the history of the fighters, the styles, the interesting matchups, the rivalries, the dramas, THEN they will be just as exciting, if not more so than the heavier divisions.

The heavier divisions all have histories, which to me, makes most fights in them interesting as we have previous bouts to compare them with.

Some people just need to give the small guys a chance. They put on a hell of a fight.

maybe its just a sense of perception when you put small fighters inside a big octagon but for me its not as entertaining as watching the bigger weight classes, sure you get to see some super fast movement as they bounce around the octagon, and credit to them they used the space well, showed great speed and cardio.

But unfortunately does not change the fact that the octagon makes them look like midgets and I miss the higher percent of added danger in the power of larger weight classes, I would not pay a PPV if I had to to watch a flyweight title fight in the main event, but I have no issues about it been on the card the way the UFC did it co-main to another upper weight title fight.

As for Joe Rogans commentary on the higher level of skill been shown, he was just doing his job and promoting not just the fight but the division that the UFC is trying to sell, everything was just at a faster pace as is natural as you move down in weight, nothing was more skillful, what did we really see aside from a mounted guillotine attempt that the fighter never really fully locked up, and some counter striking, nothing was more dynamic or skillful that we saw from Johnson than we see from other champions like Jones, Dos Santos or Silva, in fact I would say that all those champions are a lot more skillful and dynamic in there striking that Johnson by a mile even.

I want so badly to take a morally, intellectually correct stand here and lecture you guys on the heart and skill those two showed last night.

But the honest truth is, I had to slap myself awake, fix a drink and walk outside because I was afraid I would fall asleep and miss Belfort/Jones. and that's just wrong

Don't feel bad, neither of those things are actually true.

I've gone on record before saying that I don't particularly care for the lighter divisions, but I tried to enjoy the fight, and just watched it again to see if my early impressions were correct.

I can say this with some conviction: If you think this fight was exciting, you're weird. And if you think it was good, you're flat out wrong.

When the best thing you can say about the winner is that he was extremely elusive, you're not talking about a particularly exciting fight, IMO. But OK, that's subjective.

but as for skill and heart? Objectively, the skill and heart shown by these fighters was nothing to write home about.

Joseph Benavidez' striking is quite poor. He throws extremely wide, looping, telegraphed punches. But at least he was moving forward and throwing flurries, even if they were about as accurate as sgt. Mulligan's mortars.

Johnson spent most of the fight circling and countering, but never once followed a successful strike with more punches. Between rounds 3 and 4 Matt Hume actually told him to "start fighting."

And Joe and Goldie were talking about Johnson's cardio and pace. Well guess what, dancing around takes less out of you than actually throwing leather.

So in the striking department we had one fighter showing heart by moving forward, but that's hardly exceptional, and the other fighter showing skillful footwork, but not using combinations or staying in the pocket. So neither fighter showed both. Nor an exceptional degree of either skill or heart.

In the grappling department we got extremely lackluster submission attempts from both fighters, and some nice takedowns from Johnson in the 5th, but he couldn't really do anything with them.

There was nothing good about this fight other than the scrambling.

Before watching the fight a second time I voted "good, but not great" after watching it a second time I think the Canadians were right to boo.